The Great Escape? Is it really that bad...?

genuine is sometimes overrated, sometimes underrated. in the ironic mid-nineties, it was underrated.

I concur on this.

And yeh, Parklife really is the best one really.

Ha! I thought maybe it was a b-side I didn't have.

I actually witnessed Albarn recording the intro to that song. he was standing in front of JA Spirits in Goldhawk Road next door to the Townhouse Studios hammering the door and yelling. This was about 7:15 on a Tuesday morning. I passed him by and said for shame alkie Albarn etc. but he explained it was only sound effects for the album. I still think that Peter Wyngarde would have narrated it better than "Red" Ken, mind you ("Neville Thumbcatch" etc.).

1. Girls And Boys - Entertain Me
2. Tracy Jacks - Mr Robinson's Quango
3. End Of A Century - He Thought of Cars
4. Parklife -
5. Bank Holiday - Globe Alone
6. Debt Collector - Ernold Same
7. Far Out - Fade Away
8. To The End - The Universal
9. London Loves - Top Man
10. Trouble In The Message Centre - It Could Be You
11. Clover Over Dover - Best Days
12. Magic America - Country House
13. Jubilee - Dan Abnormal
14. This Is A Low - Yuko And Hiro

Fair enough?

I always remember thinking that song was dumb from the opening line "Oh Mr Robinson... And his quango..." etc... It pissed me off because this line was basically the title of the song and I found it so devoid of imagination that as a 15 year old I could have written better lyrics. Also the line about herpes. And "ooooh ah'm a naughtay boyyy/Owwww ah'm a naughtay naughtay boooy" is SO annoying.

xpost blummin TIMING!

What are the lyrics to the backing vocals during the last verse of Clover Over Dover?

Coffee and Tv is great, but 'world of rubbish' is a bit harsh. Most of the songs on there are great, they just go on twice as long as they ought to.

boy, i must hear that track again.

I can't remember the exact details, but IIRC they were a load of regional semi official organistations, many of which were shut down by thatcher in the eraly '80's as a kind of populist move, b/c qango had become synonymous w/profigat govt spending at that point.

xpost, yes, Damon Albarn now.

Pretty much every track has something going on musically, a great riff, killer hook, good idea in the arrangement, to recommend it, and almost every song is catchy as hell. But there are some awful, awful, hateful lyrics and vocals.

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Sunday, 18 March 2012 22:37 (3 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

100x yes. It would be such a great record if it hadn't been for the lyrics.

In a weird sequence of events, we decided to watch The Krays movie the other night, which promptly lodged the lyrics to 'Charmless Man' in my head. The next day, we sang it as we walked up the hill to a pub quiz where, during the music round they played 'Charmless Man' in reverse. To add to the coincidence, just as I was writing this post, I went to Google something completely unrelated and the first result was about the Kray Twins, but not what I was looking for.

Did anyone see B-Roads *finally* leaked yesterday? Maybe it was a private obsession for us Blur forum vets but it's rather like Carnival of Light has come out.

People were very weird about this. Mods demanding it must not be discussed. Show-offs who had somehow seen it informed the rest that it wasn't much cop and no one else needs to see it, yet describing every scene in great detail

B-Roads? What's that?

Late 1995 tour film / documentary, mentioned in the music press as something that was in the works. The band decided they didn't want it to come out and was quietly shelved. There wasn't too much fanfare/hype about it to begin with, but it slowly became something of a holy grail. The version that leaked could be just a rough cut, not sure

Wow. Thanks for this. I had Starshaped on video back in the day. It's odd seeing Matt Lucas in the tour party.

https://vimeo.com/774782708

on YouTube too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYX7s_5MnTY

Links seem to keep getting yanked all the time. At least it's out there now

Oh wow you couldn’t even *mention* it on the old Blur forum without the mods getting their knickers in a twist. It’s meant to be really boring.

It’s a fun piece of fluff. I like the scene with Alex James splayed out on the floor of their green room and Damon’s deadpan encounter with a local news reporter. It veers into some Song Remains the Same territory, but it doesn’t feel like a real glimpse into their minds a la True Stories or Return to Waterloo

I really quite love it, it's a real curate's egg. The Best Days bit is genuinely quite poignant.

Pretty good tbh. Refreshing actually, after all the hyper-curated retrospective docs of recent years, to see a contemporaneous effort like this, warts and all.

I found the endless aestheticised poverty kind of gross, but the lack of easy Camden/London-stuff is quite appealing. It’s a lovely document of “what things looked like”.

Graham is the good looking one it turns out (when he’s not wearing his glasses)

Wow yeah I was expecting it to be pretty lairy but this is really quite sweet, especially considering what a collective headfuck they must have been experiencing at the time. The interviews with the public remind me a bit of Pulp’s mini documentary about the making of the This Is Hardcore video, that was also shot on film, possibly by the same people. The Best Days bandstand bit is great yeah, I love that song, and Damon’s bit about the rings at the hotel was a bit of an unexpected choker. Baffling this was blocked/banned for so long.

This film sounds interesting. I know nothing about it but hope to watch some time.